Yu-Gi-Oh: the Duelist Vol. #08

What They SayYUGI VS PEGASUSYugi's beaten the champions of Duel Monsters...but now it's time to meet the maker! In the final battle of the tournament, Yugi faces ultra-rich game designer Maximillion Pegasus with the soul of his grandfather at stake! As cards fly, Yugi and Pegasus turn to the darker side of their decks, unleashing sinister monsters of the netherworld. But Pegasus has the power of the mind-scanning Millennium Eye...and how can Yugi defeat an opponent who knows exactly what he's going to do?

The ReviewPackaging:Viz uses nearly the same cover art as the original Japanese cover here: the image seems to be slightly smaller and redder where the original was a bit more on the dark pink scale. The picture in question is of Dark Yugi playing his trump card with mighty force while Pegasus looks on. Pretty much on par with the rest of the books of the series, though the slight forced perspective with the over-running of the image in the lower left gives the image more action. The back cover Shows Dark Yugi backed by gray speed lines and surrounded by the various monsters from his cards that are featured in this particular battle. (He does like that dark magician, doesn't he?)

The Viz logo is pretty much exactly what we should have in a translation: the original Japanese over-written by the English translation. Okay, there is the "Duelist" bit; but at the end all it really means is that one has to look up the list on-line to figure out what the order is and that we get all the manga that much faster.

Inside the printing is solid, just as all of Viz books seem to be these days.

Artwork:The character designs in Yu-Gi-Oh are familiar to anyone who has clicked on a TV or been to a bookstore. They're not pretty, they're not true to the laws of physics or fashion, but they are always drawn exactly as their character sheets must look. This is a thoroughly professional job, no fill-in-up-all-night artists here: every panel is drawn exactly to spec. This is in a nutshell Yu-Gi-Oh's strength and weakness as far as art goes: it's like a chain restaurant: it tastes exactly how you think it will taste. You will never put down the book to ooh and ahh at that panel layout, but then your hamburger will taste exactly like your last forty-two hamburgers tasted. The best of the art always comes through in the different duel monsters, and this volume is no exception. Of particular note is Pegasus' Relinquished: ick!

SFX/Text:All SFX are translated...D-GOOM!

Viz does a solid job with the translation for this series (as far as this gaijin can tell). Caught nothing in my reading as far as bad spelling, typos or grammar. Honorifics are not used at all in this series; and honestly although I know it would stay truer to the original, I've never felt the lack of honorifics to take away from the story.

Contents: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)We start the volume with the confirmation of Jonouchi's win over Bandit Keith; which everyone knew was coming and was happy to see arrive. We should have a battle here between Jonouchi and Yugi; but the two decide that Yugi is the only one who could defeat Pegasus, so that battle would simply give away some of Yugi's strategy. I think it's a shame that this opportunity for a battle was passed up: what happens with friendship when it's tested in heated competition? Yugi goes on to battle the creator of Duel Monsters: Pegasus. Pegasus is still being the nasty little cheater and using his Millennium Eye to read Yugi's mind and thus his cards. Pegasus marches out his toon strategy with which he beat Kaiba. Like a World Wrestling Match, Yugi seems down and out, until he too uses his Millennium Item, and it turns out Pegasus can only read one mind at a time. Dark Yugi and Light Yugi thus battle with Pegasus by switching back and forth, having to trust one another to play cards that will allow the other to win. After Yugi defeats his toon strategy, Pegasus declares that the true battle has begun and they go into a shadow game. Light Yugi can't take the pressure and faints, nearly leaving Dark Yugi to finish the match alone. With his friends' help Yugi is able to defeat Pegasus' new sacrifice strategy and win the match, thus freeing the souls of the Kaibas and his grandfather and giving Jonouchi the money to get the operation for his sister. At the end of the volume we learn how Pegasus came to posses the Millennium Eye and (something that comes as no surprise to anyone who's read a Shonen Jump lately) the Millennium Items all come from Egypt.

CommentsAs I was reading this volume I had to pause a third of the way through to ponder Pegasus' choice to use his Millennium Eye to cheat at a card game that he created. What? If he wanted money, why didn't he go to Vegas and make a killing at poker? Or if he's such a genius, why not help people out in psychiatry or criminal investigation? Or, heck, why not hit the dating scene? New shoujo: Pegasus Can Read Your Mind, No Bishonen Is Safe. On the other hand, how useful would it be to have a device which created holographic images so accurately like the duel disks? Medical science and the entire field of physics would certainly pay through the nose for such a thing if he wanted money; though even the hardest of hearts would be in awe of the advances that could be made with these technologies.

Maybe all these random thoughts were flowing through my head while reading the last volume in the Duelist Kingdom because I was ready for the arc to end. Some of the other, shorter, arcs I've felt a real building towards a climax, but this arc was just a bit long, and since it was pretty obvious what was going to happen, there wasn't any anticipation. Having said that, this was still the first volume of manga I read when I got my stack home from the comic book store. It satisfies some sort of potato-chip-manga need in me.

I found the penalty game Pegasus plays with Bandit Keith particularly unsettling. Basically Keith's hand turns into a gun and he shoots himself in the head. First off, I'm not sure what kind of game this is... but it doesn't have much replay value. The shadow games throughout Yu-Gi-Oh have been down right chilling and don't tend to have an even basic Hammurabi's Code at their core. Here's a great example: Keith, his crime basically being cheating, is forced to shoot himself by Pegasus. And it's not done by just the evil characters; in earlier volumes Dark Yugi drove people insane for things like stealing shoes. Maybe it's my American side coming against Dark Yugi's Egyptian background but... that's just wrong.

I really think an opportunity was missed by not having Yugi play Jonouchi. It's always been each duelist's friends standing behind him, but what would have happened in this case? Testing the bonds of friendship is what this series is supposed to be all about!

Middle Schooler Safe This volume goes directly in my box for giving to the middle school library. There are only a couple things that would worry me: the aforesaid shadow game, and Bakura at the end in an "after" shot of stealing the Millennium Eye from Pegasus which involves a little blood.

Great Volume To Jump On To The Series? Not so much, end of an arc, wait until next volume.

Coolest Yu-Gi-Oh Card In This Volume Gotta give it to Red Archery Girl in toon form.